Abby Lee Miller is an angry beast whose voice is about two Virginia Slims away from Freddy Krueger's. She's part scary, part ridiculous, and mostly awful. But it's difficult to blame her entirely for the general unhappiness that seems to plague this troupe. If anything, it's the fault of the mothers, who subject their daughters to Abby's favoritism, poor costume design, and questionable choreography that they all seem to hate. (As well as subjecting themselves to Abby's cruelty when it comes to questioning their parenting skills.) Sure they speak their minds and lash out against Abby—this show is actually based on the moms' screaming matches with the dance instructor than the actual dancing—but why don't they ever just pull their kids out of her studio? If they're all so miserable, why don't they just go to another dance studio? Its baffling that all the moms (including the one with the PhD) seem to think that Abby is the only option for their children to realize their dance dreams. And something tells me that their willingness to stick around has nothing to do with the reality TV cameras, since there seems to be a history of animosity going on that was probably sparked years ago.

The overly made-up faces, overly sexed-up outfits, and vicarious living featured on Dance Moms all…
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On last night's episode, one of the more vocal moms, Christi, got into it yet again with Abby, this time demanding that she speak more respectfully to her daughter. Unlike Christi, who's been living this dance life for years, I've only been watching Dance Moms for like seven weeks and even I know that's never going to happen.